The confiscation of Russia's frozen assets is in line with international law, according to an opinion by 10 legal experts from Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK and the US, prepared for the G7 countries.
Source. This was reported by Bloomberg, which studied the document.
Given Russia's "blatant violation" of the post-World War II rule of law, international law allows for "legitimate countermeasures" in response to persuade the offending country to "cease its unlawful behaviour," experts said.
"The total amount of compensation should not exceed the amount that Russia owes for the damage it has caused," the experts said.
After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and its allies banned transactions with Russia's central bank and finance ministry, blocking about $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.
However, no further decisions have been made on what to do with these assets.
Russia has previously stated that if its property is confiscated, it may retaliate by seizing US, European and other assets.
Background. Earlier, Euroclear opposed the G7's plan to use Russia's frozen assets as collateral for a Ukrainian loan.